Squirrels Preschool and Kindergarten Activities and Lessons

Squirrels, Acorns, and Fall. Discover and experience nature and squirrels in fall or autumn. Hand out a paper lunch bag for each child and take children on a walk to collect a variety of leaves, acorns, and pinecones. Talk about the color, sizes, and shapes of the collected items. Provide boxes for children to sort their treasures. Use the acorn and pinecones to play some games. Explain that squirrels are scampering to gather nuts, acorns, and pinecones to store for the winter. This month your kids will go nuts for the squirrel crafts, activities, lessons, games, and resources that we've gathered for you. Warning! Some children are allergic to nuts. Make sure to check for food allergies before serving nuts to children.

Samples of our over 50 preschool and kindergarten squirrels crafts, activities, and games available in our KidsSoup Resource Library:

New preschool and kindergarten squirrels and acorns activities we are adding this fall to our KidsSoup Resource Library:

Talk about squirrels and where squirrels live. Go outside to looks for squirrels and observe these fun animals around your neighborhood. Provide children with a small paper bag and take them outside to collect some things they find in the yard or even better take them to a woody area. Let children collect pinecones, acorns, leaves, and small twigs. Use the special things he or she collected for a variety of math activities. Caution: Acorns could be a choking hazard for young children. If you have children under the age of three, you might want to use paper acorns instead of real ones for some of the activities listed here.

The busy squirrel scampers around.
Gathering nuts that fall to the ground.
Hiding them in secret places.
Covering them over, away she races.
The busy squirrel seems to know.
Winter's winds soon will blow.

Acorn Activities and Games
Acorns are seeds from the oak tree and they are plentiful to find in many areas during the fall. Acorns are great to play and learn with.

Together with your children, look at an acorn together. Point out the different parts of an acorn (stalk, cupule, nut). Find a partially opened acorn and crack it open the rest of the way to study the inside.

Sorting and Counting Activity
Let children sort and count the items in their collection.

Pattern Activity
Let children make patterns. For example: have children make a row of their items using a acorns, then one pinecone, etc. Then let them create some more complicated patterns, such as two accorns, one leaf, two acorns, etc.

How many acorns, twigs, etc., can we hold in one hand? Let children estimate how many items they will be able to hold in their hand. Then, let them grab a handful of the same items and count them. For older children, let them write down their numbers.

Print the Crazy for Nuts game mat printable and laminate for extra strength. Place acorns or nuts inside a small basket or container. Let children roll a die and count and place the matching number of acorns on the Crazy for Nuts game mat. Let children count the acorns after each roll. The player that first covers all the acorn outlines on his/her Crazy for Nuts game mat wins the game.

Squirrels Finger Rhyme

Wisky, frisky, (Move finger side to side.)
Hippity hop, (Move finger up and down as hopping.)
Up he climbs (Raise finger high in the air and wiggle.)
To the tree top.

Whirly, twirly, (Move finger in small circles.)
Round and round,
Down he scampers (Lower finger, wiggling back and forth.)
To the ground.

Furly, curly, (Move arm in circles, getting larger.)
What a tail! Tall as a feather, (Extend arm in the air.)
Broad as a sail! (Wave arm back and forth)Wheres his supper? (Lower arm and shade eyes.)
In a shell (Hold palm up and curl fingers into a fist.)
Snappity, crackity, (Open hand, palm up.)
Out it fell!

Squirrels Game and Movement

Place a hula hoop or a piece of brown or green fabric napkin for each child on the floor. Place lots of acorns or nuts all around the room. Let children pretend to be squirrels gathering as many acorns as they can carry. When the music stops, the squirrels go “home” to their trees (hula hoops). Ask children to place their acorns in their home. How many accorns did they gather? Ask each child to count them and tell you the number. Continue until no more acorns are left.